How Local Noise Ordinances are Eating Away at the Heart of the American Music Scene
It was a hot Tuesday night in July at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan just outside of Detroit, and songwriting legend Neil Young was playing to an appreciative capacity crowd. Neil had played a 21-song set and left the stage just ahead of a 11:00 p.m. curfew, but the crowd wouldn’t be denied an encore. So Neil came back out on stage and played two final songs: “Don’t Be Denied” and “Roll Another Number.” The crowd was quite pleased, but it was a costly decision for Neil.
Due to noise ordinances and the policy of the DTE Energy Music Theatre, every minute Neil went past an 11 p.m. curfew was $1,000 he owed. Since Neil Young went ten minutes past the curfew, that was $10,000 Neil ended up paying for giving the crowd the encore they were clamoring for—a costly couple of songs for Mr. Young.
The strict noise curfew is due to the venue’s close proximity to residential areas, and with the massive size of the theatre’s sound system, the noise can travel far. The theatre is sort of notorious for its hefty noise ordinance fines. The story goes that whenever Aerosmith plays there, they pay their fines up front knowing they’ll go over the prescribed curfew.
The DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston might be one of the most famous venues for levying hefty noise ordinance fines, but it certainly is not the only one dealing with noise issues. All across the United States and beyond, local noise ordinances are being passed by city councils and implemented by code and law enforcement agencies to the tune of putting significant crimps in the operations of music venues big and small, including many in neighborhoods that are traditionally located in entertainment corridors in cities and towns, and have been at their current locations for many years.
Austin is known as the “Live Music Capital of the World,” and even in the greater central Texas area surrounding the city, music is very much an integral part of the communities and culture of the area. Dance halls used to make up the centerpieces of many small Texas towns, including the oldest operating dance hall in Texas at the moment, Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, TX.
Originally built in 1878, Gruene Hall has been at the very heart of not just the surrounding community, but the greater country music scene, serving as a spring board for the careers of artists such as George Strait, Jerry Jeff Walker, Townes Van Zandt, Lyle Lovett, and so many more. It is a Texas and country music institution. But now all of that may begin to get squeezed under a new noise ordinance scheduled to take effect November 1st. The new provisions are hoping to remove the grey area between complaints and the noise itself, setting a decibel level on what is considered “loud” so law enforcement can make better decisions and take appropriate action.
Though decibel levels might be set-in-stone benchmarks, they can’t measure the historic precedent a music venue like Gruene Hall presents, or the spirit of the live performance, reading a crowd, and seizing the moment to deliver a memorable performance. It was Hank Williams playing six encores in 1949 on the Grand Ole Opry stage that launched his career, and country music itself, to superstardom. In today’s music climate, such a feat may not be possible.
And it’s not just Gruene Hall that will be affected by the noise ordinance. A growing music scene throughout the city, including in its downtown corridor, could be squeezed by noise curfews and complaints that now carry more weight because of the teeth of the new ordinance.
“We clearly don’t want to stifle our downtown or other commercial areas,” said New Braunfels mayor Barron Casteel. “New Braunfels holds a beautiful downtown, but most importantly, we’re the oldest operating dance hall in the state of Texas. No one in New Braunfels wants to change the lifestyle in Gruene, Texas.”
But wherever noise ordinances are put in place, residents apt to complain about music noise are given a legal leg up over venues. This is exactly what has happened in Austin, TX proper, where some police are issued decibel readers right beside their firearms, and local venues more and more are having to curtail or eliminate their entertainment calendars to keep surrounding residents happy.
An extensive study of the health of the Austin music scene published earlier in 2015 found that not only is the permitting process for musicians, events, and venues—tied in many cases to noise concerns—too complicated for most individuals or businesses to navigate, but that the city’s noise ordinance provisions are directly affecting the health of the music scene, and thus, the livelihoods of Austin musicians. And they could get worse.
The study found:
In addition to the respondents concerns about sound ordinance enforcement, a large majority feared an additional DBC rating in addition to the current DBA rating would dramatically affect their business. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents said that it would be “difficult/impossible” to comply with a DBC rating in addition to the existing DBA rating.
In focus groups, this single item was the only issue in which multiple established venues said that this change could put them out of business.
Several focus group members said they came to the focus group just to talk about and express their concern around this one issue. And they felt they had been largely overlooked or ignored by City officials regarding this potential policy change.
DBC ratings for noise are more sensitive than DBA ratings, and this change could potentially be significant for local venues. The Austin music study study continues,
Venues operators commented that the combined effects of 1) the sound ordinance, 2) current zoning practices that put residences within feet of existing venues and 3) developer building requirements collide in a way that catches venues in the crosshairs.
An influx of residents moving close to live music venues has resulted in more conflict over noise issues. While developers continue to build high-end living units with no requirements for sound enforcement within walls or windows in close proximity to existing CBD live music venues, there have been increasing noise complaints from residents that result in limitations on live (and recorded) performance.
Also, downtown real estate prices have driven many venues to seek locations further out, which puts them in closer proximity to neighborhoods, creating a new set of sound issues.
But it’s not just in the City of Austin where the noise ordinances are affecting the music business. On Tuesday (8-11), Travis County Commissioners voted to begin enforcing time limits to put venues and music events outside of the city limits more in line with the noise ordinances of Austin proper. It was stimulated after the owners of Johnson’s Backyard Garden, an organic farm, complained about noise levels at the nearby Carson Creek Ranch. Ironically, the Carson Creek Ranch property is prohibited from being developed because of the noise from the nearby airport, so they decided to use the property to host music events among other uses.
Similar scenarios are playing out all across the country, especially in America’s gentrifying urban areas. The move to cities, including by retiring baby boomers who are enticed by the liveliness and artistic focus of cities such as Austin, Nashville, and other music-oriented locales, is causing a rise in new high-density real estate encroaching on established entertainment zones.
Combined with the density of the housing, the interfacing with music venues, and the age of the respective revelers and complainers, it all is creating an environment of conflict, especially when considering entertainment corridors have just as much of a right to expand as any other type of urban zone. Local residents regularly pay a premium for an ideal downtown location, and move to the area to take advantage of entertainment opportunities. Ironically, noise ordinances and other concessions in many cases erode the existing local culture as more residents move in. And in the case of Gruene Hall and many other historic and established music venues, the venues were in the neighborhood first.
Residents around music venues have a right to have their concerns respected as well, and in many cases it is not their fault. Poor planning by local commissions, lack of ordinances requiring sound proof glass and doors, and the sheer economic force of will which is the current draw to urban areas is setting up communities for conflict. Urban planning models encourage high density housing, urban renewal—including the demolition of older properties (many that house small music venues)—and mixed use plans that put residents, retail, and entertainment right on top of each other. Space and noise are the two fatal flaws of well-intended provisions hoping to curb urban and suburban sprawl.
As hip cities like Austin, Nashville, Portland, and others continue to buy in to the high-density downtown model, more effort needs to be expended to make sure the new residents aren’t endangering or destroying the existing culture they’re hoping to enjoy, as well as being protected from noise through non-intrusive and simple building codes requiring sound proof materials.
August 13, 2015 @ 6:45 pm
Where I live any band that comes through on a Sunday night has to be done by midnight because of noise ordinances. Any other night they can play till 2am.
August 13, 2015 @ 8:03 pm
I have a friend who owns a bar in S Austin. He used to have music outside but there’s one house within 100 feet of the stage. He owns that house and only uses it for storage, but it’s zoned as a “residence” so he can’t have music outside. Austin, the city formerly known as The Live Music Capital of the World, has the worst noise ordinance – noise isn’t measured from the complainer’s location, as in Portland, but from the venue’s property line, so anybody anywhere can can complain about any venue. Goddamned Californians.
August 13, 2015 @ 8:36 pm
they need to make a noise ordananse aginst rap musicc. rap is crap n I do not want to here it raddlin the trunk of the sob in the lane next to me. Ive had it.
August 13, 2015 @ 8:43 pm
Noise ordinances shouldn’t exist in regard to live music. They chose to live near venues (or well, many of them did).
It’s time to stop caring about people’s worthless complaints.
August 14, 2015 @ 8:10 am
Yep. If you move next door to a live music venue or a shooting range and then bitch about the noise, take legal action, and try to get those places shut down or otherwise marginalized, then you’re just a selfish asshole and should be treated as such, and that’s all there is to it.
(They tried to do that with the Bracken Range out on San Antonio’s northeast side a few years back too.)
August 14, 2015 @ 12:30 pm
It’s just like the city folk who move out to the country based on an idealized vision of living in “the pastoral countryside” and then getting mad at farmers because the newcomers make the belated discovery that cows have a tendency to shit and wow! shit stinks, and because the tractors are kicking up dust that gets all over their pristine BMWs. The notion that you can move to a lively downtown location and then experience perfect peace and quiet is strange to me.
August 13, 2015 @ 9:21 pm
Honestly, I used to live near where a church band played. They were so loud you could hear them down the street. I played in a different church band and you couldn’t hear us in the parking lot. I think bands and acts need to keep their sound projection inside if there are residents/business nearby. A place where the auditorium is on a campus, that’s different. But live bands playing too loud is a problem…
August 13, 2015 @ 9:40 pm
I had no idea about the noise ordinance set to impact Gruene Hall. It’s almost unfathomable to me that anyone in central Texas wants to quiet Gruene Hall. It seems so counterintuitive and wrong to attempt to minimize one of your city’s greatest assets and landmarks.
It makes me wonder what the situation is over in Helotes with Floore’s Country Store; another historic place that used to be way out of town but is now almost in the city.
They can have the charts, but let us keep our live music.
August 13, 2015 @ 10:57 pm
I can understand an ordinance against extremely loud music at night, but at some point these ordinances become violations of First Amendment free speech rights.
Perhaps a Supreme Court case could resolve the exact noise level under which noise restrictions become unconstitutional…
August 14, 2015 @ 2:37 am
And this is my EXACT prediction for SF venues. SF is pushing out the culture to become a “family town” like many cities on the other side of the tunnel in the East Bay. And it sickens me the Warfield, The Fillmore, Bimbo’s, American Music Hall all are in jeopardy because of whiny families. And you know what it isn’t fair to those of who CHOSE NOT to have children or families. Why should we have to bow down to meet your needs what about the needs of people who love live music. Frankly I surprised they still allow venues in SF to stay open past 2. Though for some stupid reason last call is at 2 and some areas last call for shots is at one. It’s like adults no longer get treated like adults we are not respected enough to handle our business.
And frankly if you move to SF and complain about venue noise kiss my ass you’re living in a city with practically 24 hour sirens.
August 14, 2015 @ 3:16 am
Actually, SF is becoming less and less of a family town. Given the rapidly rising rents there, it is increasingly impossible for even the upper middle class to afford to start a family there.
August 14, 2015 @ 5:44 am
I don’t recall ever seeing a real family in San Francisco, and I’ve been there a lot. I do recall seeing lots of drunken homeless people yelling at me for money, while they pissed against a bridge abutment. I do recall seeing loads and loads of people who don’t look like Americans jabbering in foreign tongues. I do recall seeing militant members of the rainbow nation following their own arrow at the expense of decency. But, families? Not so many. In San Fransicko I once went in to a high-end department store with my wife. My wife was looking at all of the typical excesses that should make a decent person ill, as I sat on a chair and stared at the wall. It took me about ten minutes, but I figured out that all of the “women” working in the store were actually trannies wearing frightening amounts of make-up. I do love the restaurants in San Franfreako, though. As far as the noise ordinances go, I could see a neighborhood raising a legitimate complaint against a new venue that will begin raising a racket in an established neighborhood, but existing venues should be grandfathered in, and new residents moving in should keep their mouth’s shut. This reminds me of a local issue, where some jackass was raising a stink about a local deer cull that had been going on for years. He bitched and wined, and went on tv. He picketed the township building, and yelled at council meetings, etc. When I looked into his background, he had lived here for 4 years, and was originally from Portland Oregon. No wonder. We don’t like your kind around here. Fuck off.
August 14, 2015 @ 9:58 am
Plus, San Francisco ruined pizza.
August 14, 2015 @ 10:45 am
I wasn’t aware of that. What did they do?
August 14, 2015 @ 1:46 pm
One word broccoli…
August 14, 2015 @ 1:49 pm
Well it depends on what part you go to. I volunteer in the Mission and there are TONS of families mostly Latino. The tourist areas have less families but places like The Richmond, Over near the Persidio… they are there and it is true they are being pushed out. But I still see it looking more and more like Walnut Creek with high rises every time I pass over the bay bridge.
August 14, 2015 @ 2:59 pm
Thank you for volunteering!
What is happening right now in San Francisco (along with much of the rest of the Bay Area, especially here in the Silicon Valley) amounts to economic violence against the poor and the working-class. Based on my back-of-the-envelope calculations, the rents have pushed the poverty wage in SF to about $64,000 (as opposed to about $23,000 nationally) and rising fast. It is due to a toxic combination of idiotic zoning laws (an example of the bad type of regulation), inadequate and loophole-ridden rent control, and a complete lack of any effort by the city government to build affordable housing.
All of this has led to long-time residents being forced en masse far away from the city in which many have lived their entire lives. Often, many of these people do not have cars and are forced to start spending large sums of money on car leasing, auto insurance, and gasoline out of their limited income, not to mention the hassle of the long-distance commute.
The basic tasks of a city are in providing good-paying jobs and affordable housing to its residents. I think we can safely say that SF has failed at its basic tasks.
P.S.: As someone with extensive experience with Walnut Creek, I do not know of many high-rise apartment/condo complexes there. High rises there are restricted only to a small section of the downtown area (near the intersection of North Main St. and Ygnacio Valley Blvd., close to the BART station) and are chiefly office buildings.
August 14, 2015 @ 3:37 pm
Same thing is happening to Seattle. You got your rich and you got your poor and not many in between.
August 14, 2015 @ 3:50 pm
True, but the Seattle area feels like a middle-class heaven compared to SF. Brand new luxury apartments in Downtown Bellevue are going for $1,800/month for a 1-bedroom. In Silicon Valley, you can’t even find an old studio to rent at that price, and SF proper is even worse.
In addition, the Seattle area still has an abundance of middle-class jobs thanks to Boeing (though the current CEO is trying his hardest to change that), while the Bay Area is only creating jobs in either high-tech (out of reach for the vast majority of people) or in low-wage fields like retail or fast food.
August 14, 2015 @ 3:57 pm
Yeah Seattle is still a few years behind SF but the south Lake Union area has been totally transformed in recent years and now the traditional denizens (gays and hipsters predominantly) of the Capitol Hill neighborhood are grousing about all the Amazon people taking over there neighborhood. Don’t know if you’ve been there lately but Broadway on Capitol Hill looks nothing like it did ten years ago.
August 14, 2015 @ 4:11 pm
The good thing is that the Seattle government seems to be more proactive on economic matters than the SF government, led by populists like Kshama Sawant. Seattle (along with its suburb Seatac) pioneered the $15 minimum wage that has already taken effect this year, while SF’s minimum wage is only $12.25 despite the far higher cost of living there.
Seattle also seems to be a much more construction-friendly city than SF, as it lacks the California NIMBY ethic.
These factors give me more confidence that Seattle will undertake some type of ambitious affordable housing program than will SF.
August 14, 2015 @ 4:37 pm
Don’t play games she identifies as a Socialist. And the minimum wage increase is only going to increase the cost of living so that isn’t going to change the affordability of the city.
They’re construction friendly as long as the developers keep shoveling that sweet, sweet cash to the politicians.
Anyway that’s it for me on this I don’t want to start another political thing here where it doesn’t belong.
August 14, 2015 @ 4:46 pm
We’ll see about the cost of living. It hasn’t risen beyond the normal level yet, even though the new minimum wage has been in effect for the last 4 months.
Also, political labels interest me far less than actual policies.
I’m signing off on this discussion, too.
August 15, 2015 @ 12:09 am
What I meant was SF is looking like Walnut Creek but with high rises. Not that WC has high rises. Yeah zoning laws… Ugh. I started to volunteer about 5 years ago and in the past year or so I have been hearing about more and more families being pushed out and having close shop and those moving in seem to think it is any easy task to just set up shop elsewhere. LOL! Every damn town has taquerias so to move your taqueria of 25 plus years to Antioch to try and compete with their joints is not a cake walk. I am over simplifying it but if I hear another story from a student about some family they know having to pack up and move…
And ironically the very reasons these hipsters wanted to move into these “hip” neighborhoods are being priced out because of them. We lost the damn Cartton Museum!!! A Museum!!! A nightclub/bar is one thing but a whole museum?! I give it five years before it look exactly like the cityscapes scenes from Blade Runner building covering every in.
One thing I have heard those is that a lot of the cities on the peninsula where these tech companies are based have laws against building new housing (specifically to keep same people flocking to SF) but not against expanding a place of business (i.e. The Facebook office grounds). So the workers have no where else to go but SF. And then there is Uber and Air BnB trying to be taxis and hotels but without the regulations of those industries. And they are not into paying their employees because haha they are contractors,. LOL! Full time contractors is what I hear. It is a mess and very sad mess. But change cannot be stopped, I guess. I just wish it wasn’t the tech places which sell NOTHING. No goods and certainly no services of real value. Yeah I use FB but I know it is not a product you buy like a car and you go and have repairs done it by a mechanic.
BTW I love Seattle, I have cousins up there (bemoaning the changes as well). But I must say you northern folks are much better at hiding your homeless and poor and crime than we here in the Bay Area seem to be. I’ve never been panhandled north of Eugene, Oregon.
August 15, 2015 @ 12:48 am
If there is one factor that is hurting California the most, it is the rampant NIMBYism. In most of San Mateo County, new buildings are almost banned. Every time I visit places like Redwood City or Menlo Park, it is obvious to me that almost all of the buildings are at least 3 decades old. Marin County’s zoning laws are even more restrictive, as evidenced by the struggles George Lucas is facing in building affordable housing there. Not only does this type of building restriction prevent the expansion of housing supply to alleviate prices, but it also forestalls the creation of good-paying construction jobs. It is a lose-lose.
As for the Pacific Northwest, it is really not about the ability to “hide” homelessness, poverty, or crime. The region has far less income inequality than California to begin with, with the super-rich being less rich, the poverty rate being lower, and with a strong middle-class. In addition, even among the poor, the crime rate is much lower.
In my view, the Pacific Northwest combines the best cultural aspects of California with the best of Scandinavia/Upper Midwest: the former’s openness and cultural tolerance, and the latter’s egalitarianism and community spirit. It is that type of culture that makes me very proud that I was raised in the Seattle area.
August 17, 2015 @ 10:02 pm
I’ve heard that SF has taken to spraying streetlight poles with a urine-retardant paint, to splash it back on the offender and motivate them to take their “business” elsewhere. Apparently it’s become enough of a problem that streetlights are actually being weakened by urine-induced corrosion. I guess that’s what happens when those making modest incomes are priced out of homes, and when the mentally ill can’t be cared for for fear of violating their rights or somesuch.
August 18, 2015 @ 3:28 pm
“Cared for”? Let’s not use euphemisms.
August 14, 2015 @ 3:03 am
I live about five miles from that mega-EDM-stock Tommorroworld, southwest of Atlanta and while it is out in the woods, it manages to be quiet~ except for that low frequency/long wavelength bass thrumming that is almost imperceptible, but still annoyingly in the background. Add the light and laser shows flashing above the trees, and you’d think it was War of the Worlds for real…
Then again, given the crowd that attends and the local good old’ country folk who live out here on the ‘Hooch, maybe it is… maybe it is…
August 14, 2015 @ 8:35 am
if you live in CT, you heard about this http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Wallingfords-Oakdale-Theatre-Could-Be-in-Danger-of-Closing-304171121.html Not a bad venue……..Saw Alabama and Billy Currenton there (well, yea….i got my pros/cons on BC………he is pop……….cant defend his music now) fu–ing yuck
Back to topic, EDM is making venues close…Sad. But I get it, if they book these bands for a late show, they get the proper stuff installed for the sound.
August 14, 2015 @ 9:49 am
Could it be that some who moved near the music venues didn’t think the noise would bother them, but then it did? People should be able to test live in a house/apt like people test drive cars. If they don’t like the noise, they don’t buy the house/apt and find someplace that’s not near a music venue. Boom. Problem solved!
August 14, 2015 @ 11:37 am
A lot of times, the people moving to these neighborhoods are doing it specifically for the proximity to nightlife and culture. They want to know it’s there. They just don’t necessarily want to take advantage of it, or be bothered by it when they’re not.
August 14, 2015 @ 10:04 am
“…. live bands playing too loud is a problem”¦” Always has been .yes
Commercial and residential development is eating up land like a starved army of locusts ..at least here in Canada’s expanding urban centres . And , like many other countries , we’ve become more of a melting pot of backgrounds and beliefs culturally and otherwise . Trying to accommodate so many cultural ” rights” ,needs, rituals , customs , perspectives , and efforts to protect same has become a 24/7 concern for cities , politicians, lawmakers and peacekeepers. Outdoor festivals , musical and cultural have increased in numbers exponentially , with ever-growing attendances putting a strain on all aspects of regulatory bodies required to successfully mount said affairs . Volume levels have indeed become a concern for more and more of these festivals , as has drug and alcohol use/abuse ,traffic flow and parking issues , sanitary sites and the costs involved in providing and policing these events . There are bound to be increasing numbers of complaints associated with the increasing numbers of these outdoor events and volume concerns will almost always be high on that list . Understandably , of course , as with so many of us living literally on TOP of each other and population densities hitting baffling levels , we will be lucky if volume remains the most troubling concern when conditions like these and the tensions they create exist . And thanks to short -sighted city planners and greedy developers , these conditions seem destined to exist from here on in . Yes , you can argue that people shouldn’t move to an area which regularly hosts these festivals , but you are wasting your breath and your time and money because developers have more more of ALL these things than any of us .
August 14, 2015 @ 11:35 am
The issue here isn’t as much with festivals as it is with established venues. Granted, the festival dynamic you illustrate is an important issue to broach too. But when you have established venues in an established neighborhood, then you have new development right beside them with no soundproofing even considered in the design, and people moving into these properties and immediately complaining about the sound, that is where I think there is grounds for fair concern that the system isn’t working for anyone. No doubt though, the money being made on this development is incredible, and that’s how developments are getting fast tracked and erected before cities can even take a deep breath and figure out what this all might mean for their future.
August 14, 2015 @ 1:52 pm
Funny thing about locusts is that they are cannibals. That swarm referred to is actually locusts fleeing other locusts trying to eat them. The metaphor is quit apt even if you didn’t plan it.
August 14, 2015 @ 4:52 pm
Great article. I lived up in Detroit for 7 years. I attended many concerts at DTE. The most memorable one was Toby Keith/ Miranda Lambert over the 4th of July, 2007. After a short meet and greet with Lambert (she played 4 songs acoustic) a tornado touched down near the venue and blew out the power. They brought in generators and with permission of the mayor of Clarkston, the concert resumed at 10:45 with a very abbreviated set by Lambert. Keith took the stage after 11pm and played till 1:30 am. So, some circumstances break the curfew. I guess if you notified officials ahead of time, they’d be more forgiving. I think another issue beyond noise is the police officers directing traffic and the paramedics needed at an event of that magnitude.
August 15, 2015 @ 6:19 pm
Shitty music is eating away at the heart of the music scene.
You guys heard the base at any of these pop shows lately? Jesus Christ!!!
Can’t blame people for hating live music when it’s shitty AND louder than hell…